It was long-rumoured that the follow up to Jelly Bean would be “Key Lime Pie”, however in a deal with Nestle, Google named Android 4.4 after the Kitkat chocolate biscuit.

Always listening Google Now

Google Now is constantly listening out for "OK Google".

Google’s intelligent digital assistant and smart search, Google Now, has been given much larger prominence within Android 4.4 Kitkat, integrating an always listening feature, which will instantly respond to voice commands triggered by the phrase “OK Google”.

Instead of having to launch a separate app, your searches can be made directly from the homescreen without having to tap any buttons, just by starting your commands with “OK Google”. This always-listening feature was first introduced with Google’s smart glasses Google Glass, which is voice-activated by the phrase “OK Glass”.

Full-screen immersion

Google has taken steps with Android 4.4 Kitkat to make the experience of using apps like ebook readers or web browsers a much more immersive experience. It has changed the way the system-level interface elements are presented, including the status bar at the top of the screen and the Android menu buttons at the bottom.

Instead of permanently bracketing your screen with two black bars, the top notification bar is now transparent, allowing more of your homescreen wallpaper to shine through. The menu bar at the bottom of the screen can now also disappear when an app is put into a full-screen mode, allowing content to take up the full real estate of the screen.

Dragging your finger down from the top of the screen or up from the bottom of the screen now reveals the notification or menu bars when in full screen applications.

Support for lower-end phones

Android fragmentation has been a big problem for app developers ever since the operating system’s inception. Essentially it means that multiple versions of Android that aren’t up to date exist on various devices. While that’s not an issue in and of itself, for developers it presents a massive challenge as they have to programme their apps to support multiple versions of Android – all with differing capabilities.

Google has already taken steps towards minimising fragmentation through the decoupling of its own applications and services from the operating system into separate downloadable apps. That allows users on older versions of Android to update these apps separately through the Google Play store and gain access to the new services and features.

Now Google is taking its battle with fragmentation a step further by reducing the system requirements for Android 4.4 Kitkat. In doing this Google has made it possible to run Kitkat on much lower power devices.

Low-power sensors without battery drain

Kitkat uses batch processing to reduce the battery drain while still allowing your phone to track your movements and use other sensors.

Essentially, Android will now queue up sensory input to be processed in batches, which means that the central processor doesn’t need to be in a high-power state all the time to accept and process data from the phone’s sensors like the GPS, accelerometers and gyroscopes.

The end result is much improved battery life, while maintaining the data logging and sensory activities that facilitate great features like Google Now, fitness trackers and location reporting.

NFC payments enhancement

Kitkat simplifies the use of NFC for payments and other functions.

Google has also taken steps to simplify and hopefully accelerate the use of near-field communication (NFC) for payments. A significant proportion of Android phones come with an NFC chip built in, which is currently mainly used for pairing accessories and Bluetooth devices.

Now Google has baked a new feature into Android Kitkat that aims to simplify the use of NFC applications for payments called “Host Card Emulation”, which facilitates the connection between the applications and the NFC hardware within the Android device.

Google hopes that this new simplification within the Android software will help NFC payments, as well as other NFC uses gain traction.